Last Words
by Traveler Of Many Lands
Summary: The story of Petunia Evans's last words to Lily. Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Challenges and Assignments


"Tuney?" Lily Evans poked her head around her sister Petunia's door. "Tuney, can we talk?"

Only a small grunt of assent was the response to Lily's inquiry. Timidly, Lily Evans, recent Hogwarts graduate, crept into the room that Petunia Evans called her own. The latter was sitting at her desk, writing in a notebook of palest peach. As Lily entered, Petunia shut the book with a sharp snap and shoved it onto her bedspread. Without any preamble or greeting, Petunia sat on top of her bed and began, "So, what do you want to talk about? Maybe that _pathetic_ little goblin on Spinner's End that you want to marry?"

" _Petunia_." Lily nearly snapped. "I fell out with him ages ago. And I have simply no intention of marrying that coward."

"Good," Petunia replied nastily. "I would have been absolutely disgusted to see what offspring came of that."

" _Petunia_ ," Lily spat through clenched teeth. "He was a good friend before we fell out with each other. I wanted to talk about something completely different."

"What, Lily?" Petunia asked finally after a silence that was both awkward and long.

Lily opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, trying to figure out what to say, but words failed her and she instead held out her left hand. A silvery ring with shining diamonds set in it glittered on her middle finger.

" _Lily!_ " Petunia gasped. "Who is it? Who are you engaged to?"

"James...James...James Potter." Lily gasped out the name hesitantly. James Potter had visited the Evans household when he and Lily were in sixth year, with very catastrophic results. Both Petunia (by order of the sisters' parents) and her boyfriend Vernon were present. Obviously, the meeting had further pounded in Petunia's belief that wizards were freaks, for the occurrences that had happened that afternoon were absolutely unforgettable (and not in a nice way). Lily knew very well that the very mention of his name would cause an uproar with Petunia. And she was right.

" _That nutcase?!_ " Petunia screeched like some sort of exotic species of bird. "He INSULTED my Vernon! And he does some sort of weird sport, and by the looks of it, he's just a real braggart about it!"

"Petunia!" Lily nearly wailed. "Don't! He's really a very nice and understanding person! The few hours you saw of James only was like that because he didn't know how to act around Muggles! He just really wanted to impress you, and Vernon, and Dad, and Mum!" Tears leaked out of her wide green eyes and snaked down her freckled cheeks like rivers. "And...and...and Petunia, I really wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?" Petunia asked, so sharply that she could slice an apple just with the tone of her voice.

"Tuney...I want you to be my bridesmaid. Please?" Lily swiped a hand across her face, wiping away her tears. Her eyes pleaded with Petunia in a way that words could not, in the kind of way that is often used as a last resort.

"Lily, I will not participate in anything inside your _freak_ world. You don't want me there anyway." Petunia's voice had now changed into its granite state, hard and unmovable. "If you didn't want to marry a...a _FREAK_ like that Potter nutcase, I might say something different. But my answer is no."

"Tuney..." Lily's voice was wavery, her eyes wide. "Tuney, do you remember those days before...before Severus, before magic?" She paused. "Tuney, do you remember how we were such good friends?"

"DON'T DO THAT!" Petunia screeched again, her face slowly turning a shade of crimson.

Lily braced herself and continued. "Tuney, we were the best of friends. We were inseparable. Do you remember how we used to go to the playground every day in the summer and pretend that we were the two queens of the grand castle? Do you remember when we sneaked some of Mum's pastries down to the creek and had grand picnics? Tuney, don't you remember?"

"STOP!" Petunia screamed. "STOP IT!" She took the deepest of breaths and continued. "THAT MEANS _NOTHING_ NOW. NOTHING! THAT WAS WHEN I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE JUST _LILY EVANS, MY SISTER,_ AND NOT _LILY EVANS, MY SISTER, THE WITCH_! I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST...JUST NORMAL, JUST LILY!"

Lily bravely and rather foolishly pushed on. "Tuney, it is for those very reasons that I'm asking you to be a part of one of the most important milestones of my life! And besides, Tuney," here her voice was cracking like an egg rapped against a glass bowl, "Tuney, I still love you."

This calmed the storm for a few seconds. Petunia's face melted into one of remorse, sadness, sorrow all together for the tiniest fraction of a second, and then it hardened. "Oh, okay then. You still want to be...what did you say? _friends_ with me. Well, guess what?"

Petunia leaned across the gap between her bed and where Lily was standing and coldly sneered, " _Get out."_ Lily gasped and stepped back. "That's right, Lily. Step back. You think you're the powerful one here? Why? Because you have a _magical_ stick and I don't? Get out, you nasty little creep. Our parents have been sucked into your little maelstrom, but guess what, sister? I WON'T!" Petunia's voice had passed shouting and was more on bellowing now.

And then, picking up her journal, she screamed the last seven words that she would ever say to her sister, the words she would regret after Lily's death.

"YOU'RE DEAD TO ME NOW, LILY EVANS!"

Petunia hurled the journal at Lily, and as Lily's eyes filled with tears, as she rushed out of the room, only one word on the journal's open page stood out to her.

 ** _FREAK_**.


End file.
